Treating petroleum and petroleum residues.



J.- A. DUBBS. v TREATING PETROLEUM PETROLEUM RESIDUES.

APPLICATION IIL ED DBO. 5, 1910 Patented Mar. 25, 1913.

vgnu-35E: I

"UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE A. 'DUBIBS, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

TREATING PETROLEUM ANIJ IPETROLEUM RESIDUES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 5., 1910. Serial No. 595,750.

To all whom it may concern:

'Be it'known that I, JEssE A. DUBBS, residing at Los Angeles, in thecounty of Los Angeles and State of .California, a citizen.

mean-to indicate those substances which re- 1 main in the still chamberafter the lighter gases and oils have been removed from the petroleum bydistillation. of asphalt by the distillation of petroleum and ofpetroleum residues by distillation is well known and needsno'description. In the course of the operation of distillation to thisend it has been customary for one purpose or another to blow through theliquid material in the still a blast of air, and for some purposes alsothe liquid has been blown through with a blast of steam. I have foundthat these in-blown fluids have each of them its peculiar effect uponthe asphalt produced. If the material, while being distilled, is blownwith steam, the resulting asphaltwill be one of relatively greatplasticity and ductility. If, on the other hand, the material is blownvwith air during distillation, the resulting asphalt will be hard andbrittle and lacking in ductility.

I have found it advantageous (and my present invention consists in suchoperation) to blow the material while under treatment,

throughout a substantial portion of the operation of distillationsimultaneously with The asphaltum which I produce by such operation isneither too plastic, as is the case with steam-blown asphalt, nor is ittoo brittle, as is the case with air-blown as halt.

invention further resides in so eontrolllng the supply of steam and airemployed for this purpose, and so relating the quantities of injectedfluids the one to the other, that the product is within my control, sofar as concerns ductility and plasticity and I may vary the degree ofdue- :tilitg of the product to better adapt the pro not for specificuses. Furthermore, in

The production.

dealing, with petroleums and petroleum resi-' dues ofdifferent gradesand characters, by varying the relative. and absolute quantities of thein-blown fluids, I am able to produce a product coming up to certainrequirements.

I Patented Mar.'25, 19 13.

I shall describe first a typical operation upon a fairly representativearticle, and as a sequel describe how the operation may be varied.

I take, for example, California crude petroleum, having a specificgravity of 18 Baum at atmospheric temperature. I place this petroleum ina still of any preferred construction having proper pipe connections,and bring it to a temperature of 225 F. by the application of externalheat. I then begin to inject steam, preferably through aperforated pipeat the bottom of the still, in a well known manner, to obtaindistribution of the injected steam throughout the body of the charge inthe still. The

initial temperature of the steam may be ap-.

proximately 225 F. At first the steam is introduced in limitedquantities, to avoid boiling over of the contents; but once the stillgets to running regularly and smoothly, the volume of introduced steamis increased, untilthe volume of distillate produced is in suitablerelation to the quantity of material under treatment. After a period,which will ordinarily cover two or three hours, air also is introduced.'Theair may be blown in either through a separate perforated pipe orthrough the same pipe which carrles' the steam; but, if the air andsteam are mingled, it is preferable that the air be reheated before itis introduced into the ow of steam, as otherwise it will effect somecondensation of the steam. To prevent such condensation, the temperatureof the in-blown air will be a proximately that of the steam. The air aso is introduced in agradually increasing volume until, as compared withthe amount of steam, the volume of air introduced will be from 50% to75% of the other fluid, and therelative amount will be determined byobservation in view of the results to be reached. The temperature at thetime the air is introduced under such circumstances will be between 250and 300 F. ordinarily. From this point on, the operation continues withthe combined air and steam blasts until distillation is finished. Thiswill be V thirty six hours (depending upon the degree of hardness towhich the asphalt is to be brought), and the ultimate temperature willbe between 400 and 650 F. (this also depending upon the quality of theproduct desired).

lVhen the distillation is substantially finished, the air is first shutoff and the steam is allowed to continue to pass through the oil forabout half an hour, or until such time as vapors which might otherwisecondense in the still chamber are carried out of the still. The primaryobject of this prolonged action of the steam is to render theproduct-practically' odorless.

The accompanying drawing will illustrate my invention, this being a Viewin vertical section of a still for carrying the invention intopractice.' 1

The still itself is indicated at 1; a suitable furnace or burner isindicated at 2. It will be understood that, while, (as hereinbeforedescribed) the burner 2 will afford the initial heat, continuation ofheat may be had by the internal combustion following upon theintroduction of air when the material is still at elevated temperature.Whether the heat of the burner 2 be continued throughout the operationis a detail which is variable within the judgment of the operator. forit is a matter within the common knowledge of the art at the presentday. The pipe for the introduction of steam and air is indicated at 3.and is forked as at 6 in order to have connection to steam and airsupply pipes. Within the still chamber the pipe 3 terminates in aperforated distributing-head 4.

a The distillates from the chamber 1 escape from the top thereof bymeans of the passageway 5.

' My understanding of the matter is this. The asphalt is to beconsidered to be made up of two elements, one commonly called asphalteneand the other petrolene. Asphaltene is the hard element of the mixtureand petrolene the fluid element. In other words, asphaltene is a solidheld in solution in the more or less fluid petrolene. When petroleum isblown with steam the petrolene clement. predominates in the product, and

when it'is blown with air the asphaltene element predominates.

If the material which is treatedis one that does not under normaltreatment afford an asphalt of suflicient hardness, then the blowmg inof air may be begun at or shortly after, or if need be even before theblowing I I in of the steam begins, and the volume of delayed or thequantity of air to be introduced may be diminished, or both, to afford asofter product.

So long as steam is present in an amount as great as 25% of the air, anexplosive mixture cannot be formed in the still chamber. If however therelative amount of steam falls below that ,minimum, precautions shouldbe taken in the manner known to the art to prevent explosion.

The operation described above is based upon the assumption that the oilis initially free from water. treated does contain water, it shouldfirst be dried in any preferred manner, before my operation hereindescribed is performed upon it.

I have referred above to petroleum and petroleum residue. It will beunderstood that petroleum residue is a result of an initial distillationof petroleum itself, and no separate explanation is necessary to enableone skilled in the art to treat either or both substances. Consequently,residual products such. as petroleum tar and other products from whichthe lighter distillates, or the greater percentage of the originalpetroleum has been taken are susce tible to this process in the samemanner an the same degree as are those petroleum substances which havestill a large proportion of readily distillable If however the oil to beingredients present in them. Where the preferably first subjected toheat untilbrought to a temperature of 300 to 450 F., before the blastsare introduced.

I claim herein as my invention:

1. The method herein described of producing asphalt from petroleum andpetroleum residues, which consists in distilling away the lighteringredients of the substance under treatment and as such distillationprogresses blowing the mass under treatment simultaneously with blastsof steam and of air.

2. The method herein described of producing asphalt from petroleum oretroleum residue, which consists in distilling away the lightercomponents of the substance to be treated, and during such operatlon ofdistillation blowingthe substance under treatment with blasts of air andof steam in relatively regulated quantities according to the physicalproperties desired in the product.

3. The method of treating petroleum and residual petroleum products toobtain asphalt and asphaltic products which consists 1n injecting in theheated body under treatin heating the residue from 300 to 450 degreesF., then blowing the petroleum residue With air and later introducingsteam, Varying the proportions of the steam and air for producing softeror harder products 5. The method of treating petroleum and residualpetroleum products, which consists in blowing the heated petroleum orits products with steam and then introducing air conjointly with thesteam, to obtain harder or softer products, the quantity of steam withthe air for softer products being illversely proportional to thequantity of air with the steam for harder products.

6. The method herein described of preparing asphalt from petroleum orpetroleum residue, which consists in distilling away the lighteringredients of the material acted upon, and in the course of suchdistillation introducing into the material successively blasts of steamand of air, and continuing the operation with the conjoint blowing in ofboth fluids, the order in Which the blasts are successively introducedand the interval of time between their successive introduction beingdetermined according to the physical properties desired in the product.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JESSE A. DUBBS.

Witnesses:

ANTON GLoETzNER, Jr., v F. J. MoCLARY;

